Power and Managerial Control

The different sources of power within organizations are coercive power which can be described as ones ability to influence the behavior of others in an organizations by either taking punitive measures towards mistakes committed or threatening them of taking punitive measures in order to influence their behavior towards a task or goals allocated to them (Seperich amp. Mccalley, 2006). A good example of this is that most employees usually comply with directives given by managers because of fear of what action the manager might take against them in the events that the fail to follow the directives in question. This empowers most managers in organizations because they have the capability of excising different punitive measures towards employees working under them like reprimands, issuing out undesirable work assignments, withholding key information, demotions and suspensions or dismissals. However, coercive power in organizations varies from one organization to the other as many have clearly defined policies and procedures which govern managers’ relationship with their employees. Likewise, the presence of unions also affects coercive powers in organizations because it weakens it rather than strengthening it since they argue out that not only managers in organizations should have coercive powers but also employees in different departments can exercise this form of power through such ways like use of sarcasm and fear of rejections (Gibson amp. Carr, 2004).